You are a great leader when your people don't need you, yet they want you. 'Tis one of the paradoxes of true power. Another is, “Those who need power, to have people follow them, don't have it. Those who have it don't need to use it.”
Great leaders work themselves out of a job. They grow their people to be self-sufficient and capable leaders, thus leaving an enduring legacy by default. To quote Lao Tzu, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
This is one of the secrets to building an enduring organization and culture, that grows from merely being good to being great. It is not how imposing the supposed leader is that matters. It is how the leader can help the people see what the leader sees, feel what they feel, and thus see themselves as a part of the whole.
Think about the cleaner at NASA, who when asked what her role was, answered, "It is to take the man to the moon." She had evolved from being just a mere cleaner to embodying the mission of the whole organization. She had been impacted by a leader and thus became one herself.
The Saint.
#leadership #transformativeleadership #saintakin #thesaint #uncleakin
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